Lorne Rubenstein | |
R&A to change the date of the British Open
April 1st, 2007
 Photo: © David Cannon/Getty Images |
Tiger Woods winning the British Open last year at Hoylake. |
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The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews is considering a date change
for this year's Open Championship at the Carnoustie Golf Club, which is
currently scheduled for July 19-22. The organization might take this
unprecedented step because Tiger Woods has said he will miss the
championship he has won three times should his wife Elin give birth around
that time. Her due date is sometime in July.
"If she's going to have it during the week of The Open, I just don't go,"
Woods said earlier this year. "That's the most important thing, not a golf
tournament."
R&A secretary Peter Dawson and championship secretary David Hill are taking
seriously the possibility that Woods will not play. Dawson tipped the R&A's
hand on March 6th in Glasgow, during an Open-related meeting.
"Tiger is a big draw," Dawson said. "He's going for his third consecutive
Open championship, and you don't get that happening very often. If he doesn't
come, then it would be bound to affect things."
Photo: © Andrew Redington/Getty Images | | Peter Dawson feels this is the best thing for the Open Championship. |
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More golfers around the world follow the Open Championship than any of the
other three majors. Attendance at the event is also huge. Dawson said he
expects attendance at Carnoustie this year to increase by 10-15% over the
160,000 who were on-site in 1999, when Paul Lawrie won in a playoff over
Jean Van de Velde and Justin Leonard.
However, Dawson is well aware that attendance figures, not to mention
worldwide interest on television, would suffer dramatically should Woods not
play. Media coverage would also diminish sharply. Companies that have
committed substantial investments in the Open for entertainment on-site
already fear the worst.
Dawson is well aware that in today's golf scene, there's Woods, and then
there's everybody else. Still, he respects the decision that Woods said he
will make should he find himself a father for the first time come Open
Championship week.
Photo: © Andy Lyons/Getty Images | | Tiger Woodsafter winning the British Open standing next to his caddie Steve Williams and his wife Elin. |
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"I know he'll be there if he possibly can," Dawson said. "Family, though,
comes first and we quite understand that."
Since March 6th in Glasgow, Dawson has thought further on the matter. He and
Hill have met with PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and European Tour chief
executive George O'Grady. They are considering moving the Open to August
16-19. The PGA Tour's Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina
would still be played that week. Dawson and Hill will meet again with
Finchem and O'Grady, and other key officials in the golf world, during the
Masters.
"We appreciate the spot that the R&A finds itself in, and of course we
understand how important Tiger Woods is to the championship, and how much he
would like to be there," James Lanik, the Wyndham Championship's general
chairman, said.
The Wyndham Championship will remain the last tournament on the FedExCup
schedule. The playoff series of four tournaments that will culminate in the
Tour Championship begins the following week.
Photo: © David Cannon/Getty Images | | There is no problem with Carnoustie holding the Open Championship a month later. |
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It's highly unlikely that the Wyndham Championship would have been on Woods'
schedule this year. It follows the PGA Championship, for one thing. Should
the Open move to the same week, it would make for an awkward end to the
majors, with two in a row.
"That's hardly the ideal situation," Dawson said, "but it's the best
alternative we've been able to find."
Television, of course, is playing a titanic role in the R&A's thinking. The
BBC has agreed to move its coverage to August 16-19. The BBC will work
around its Aug. 18th coverage of the ECB Trophy final cricket match at
Lord's in London, and the EuroHockey Mean's and Women's Nations
Championship, which begins August 18th.
The week also makes sense for U.S. networks that a decision will affect. CBS
is telecasting the Wyndham, so there's no issue with the network. ABC, which
telecasts the Open in the U.S., does not have any major sporting events on
during the August 16-19 period, and has agreed to switch its coverage.
Meanwhile, Woods has agreed to play the Wyndham event two of the next five
years, in return for its magnanimous gesture. He has also agreed to play
the Scandinavian Masters, which will be held Aug. 16-19 at the Arlandastad
Golf Club in Stockholm, Sweden, at least once in the next five years.
Some of his fellow players feel the PGA Tour has already done enough for
Woods, what with the new tournament in Washington that he will host next
year, and that will include a limited field of 120 players. The tournament
will replace the International, a full-field event.
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